Monthly Archives: April 2017

Just in case any of you have not yet heard, our dear friend and colleague Pierre Dalrymple, PSel Major (Retired) died on Monday 3 April 2017…peacefully, at home, with Linda and his two sons at his side.

I am told by the family that Pierre’s obituary will appear in the Ottawa Citizen Saturday 8 April and that there will be a memorial service for Pierre at Beechwood Cemetery on Tuesday, 11 April 2017, beginning at 1 PM. The plan for speeches at this celebration of life includes Pierre’s son Michael, Pierre’s 11-year-old grandson, plus Digger MacDougall, Karol Wenek and myself.

Should you have a memory, message or anecdote about Pierre that you would like shared at the celebration, feel free to send (or telephone) it to me…I will do my best to do justice to all that I receive.

To those who will be at the Tuesday service, I look forward to seeing you there.

My/our friend Pierre Dalrymple passed away at 4 PM on Monday. We were close friends since the time we first met on the training program for Personnel Selection Officers in 1970. At that time we shared a hotel suite for the better part of five weeks, and got to know each other quite well as we recounted a lot of Army and life experiences, I followed Pierre through three military postings at CFB Borden, FMC Headquarters and the NDHQ Administrative Unit. This gave us an additional time to share notes and learn of each other’s professional attributes that we brought to our jobs as military psychologists, staff officers, counsellors, and leaders with within our branch and the military units and headquarters we served.

In retirement we started a “Breakfast Gang” of friends and colleagues, which met regularly over more than a dozen years. Pierre dubbed this group “The ROMEOs” which stood for – retired old men eating out.

Pierre mentored and helped me through my cancer surgery and recovery. We even went to the cancer center in Ottawa together to offer our services as volunteer counseliors to help others who were experiencing difficulty with their illnesses and/or recoveries. I will be ever grateful for his assistance.

I enjoyed his humour and his lightning quick wit, sharing his knowledge of current affairs, having fish and chips with him at the Royal Canadian Legion in Orleans, and above all, his friendship. I will miss him.